Team USA dominates at 2015 Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country
1/10/2015
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND -- Team USA left its mark on Holyrood Park, as the U.S. dominated the overall team competition and took home three of four team titles at the 2015 Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country meet on Saturday, January 10. Team USA scored 121 points on the day, with Team Europe scoring 189 and Team Great Britain registering 223.
USATF.tv carried exclusive live coverage of the meet in the U.S., and highlights and interviews from Saturday’s races can be found here.
For the senior men, Chris Derrick defended his 2014 individual men’s 8k title with a time of 25:31 to lead the field. Derrick’s former Stanford teammate Jacob Riley also turned in a podium finish Saturday with his second-place finish of 25:33. In all, six Americans finished in the top 10 to round out the scoring for Team USA, as Reed Connor (4th - 25:38), Andrew Colley (6th - 25:42), Craig Forys (7th - 25:43) and Bobby Curtis (10th - 26:03) crushed the men’s field to nab 30 points and the team victory.
Team USA put together a total team effort in the junior men’s race, scoring a meet-low 14 points to defeat Team Europe (27) and Team Great Britain (49) to start the day off right for the U.S. Five athletes finished in the top six Saturday, with Cerake Geberkidane (20:07) just edging teammate Olin Hacker (20:08) to finish 2-3 individually. To round out the scoring for the Americans, Caleb Webb crossed in fourth in 20:28 and Andrew Rafla finished fifth in 20:35. Elijah Armstrong may not have scored for Team USA Saturday, but his sixth-place finish (20:36) helped set the tone for the meet.
Four top-10 finishes sealed the junior women’s team victory for Team USA, as University of Montana commit Makena Morley turned in a time of 14:40 to win an individual title to go along with team gold. Compatriot Anna Rohrer was not far behind, as the Foot Locker champion finished with a silver in Scotland in 14:47. Ryen Frazier and Katie Lembo rounded out the scoring for the U.S. with times of 15:22 (6th) and 15:42 (7th), respectively. As a team, the U.S. scored 16 points to lead Team Great Britain (27) and Team Europe (37).
In the senior women’s race, Brianne Nelson notched the best finish for Team USA with a fourth-place time of 21:54. Emma Bates and Frances Koons also turned in top-10 finishes with times of 22:01 (6th) and 22:17 (8th). As a team, the U.S. finished second with 61 points.
In the men’s invitational 4k, Garrett Heath defended his 2014 individual title with a finish of 12:11, absolutely dominating the field. Dathan Ritzenhein followed up his victory at the IAAF Cross Country Permit meeting in Italy earlier this week with a podium finish Saturday, crossing third in 12:27.
In a fun twist, the 2015 edition of Great Edinburgh Cross Country featured a two-person relay. Team USA finished fourth with Heather Kampf and Riley Masters pairing up to cross in 6:47.
Full results from the 2015 Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country meet can be found here.
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